Monocled Alchemist

Rockin’ ’60s Punkers! | Goodbye Dork Rock

THE ELITE- “MY CONFUSION”
This Fort Worth, Texas group started in 1963, blasting frat-rock and surf for two years before recording their first 45, “One Potato Two Potato”, a crazed instrumental in the “Surfing Bird” vein.

Next up in 1966 was this high-speed punk raver, all ’bout the effects of a BAD GIRL. The Elite ruled the frequent Fort Worth battles of the bands, not only due to their ravin’ sounds but also due to the volume level of the screams of their all-girl, 200-member fan club. The group almost went bald one night when they were mistaken for the stars at the 1965 Beatles concert and hordes of screaming girls swarmed ’em.

THE JUJUS- “DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME”
The second and last release by the famed JuJus, this one was without Ray Hummell, the singer on “You Treat Me Bad” and “Hey Little Girl”, who left the group in 1966 to form the Traffic Jams with Ray Vasquez of the Legends.

The wild and mysterious buzzing noises on this song were made by a motorcycle which the group brought into the studio and revved up for special effects. The shattering glass heard after the crazed guitar break was a Coke bottle that got in the way of the bike during its trip across the studio. (Definitely a lot cooler than the coke used by today’s moronic “rock” bands.)

Back From The Grave | Volume 1 | (Crypt) 1983

THE ALARM CLOCKS- “YEAH” and “NO REASON TO COMPLAIN”
Two amazing sides of Cleveland area garage punk! The group was a three-piece (guitar, bass, drums) high-school combo and unfortunately never released any other records, which is a DRAG, cause this 45 has got to be one of the greatest ever.

An organ player joined to make the group a 4-piece soon after this was released.

THE FABS- “THAT’S THE BAG I’M IN” Ho! At last the mystery is solved ! The Fabs were a Fullerton, California teen band – NOT FROM TEXAS, as it has been long thought. The group started in 1966 and were “discovered” by drummer Bob Ellis’ mom’s boss, who owned a bunch of hair salons and her own make-up line.

Hollywood

A business associate of hers from Dallas, Texas liked the Fabs too, and they decided to put out a record. So the odd poem “Dinah Wants Religion” (on Volume Four of ‘GRAVE’) and a Fred Neil folk song with great lyrics were FAB-ulized with really rockin’ music at United Studios in Hollywood.

The managers in Texas put it out on a Texas-addressed label and it was released in test areas in the Southwest. With some local radio play, the Fabs started getting a lot of jobs, playing at such joints as ‘The Salty Cellar’ in Huntington Beach, ‘Marine Palace’, the Anaheim Bowl, the Danny Kaye TV show, and in the KRLA radio Halloween Monster Freak-Off opening for the SEEDS, RAIN(‘Outta My Life’), Davie Allan & the Arrows, and played the frequent battle of the bands with, among others, the SLOTHS!!

THE MALIBUS- “CRY”
Great punker from Rhode Island, home of Satans Breed, the deranged Shawkey S’eau, and Others. This cool grinder was the flip to an outrageous cop of the Zombies “Leave Me Be”, and has a very different sound. “Cry” has a definite ’66 style, while “Leave Me Alone” has a muffled, surfy feel. A later 45 by the group had a psychedelic version of “Cry”.

Back From The Grave | Volume 1 | (Crypt) 1983

THE BEL-AIRES- “YA HA BE BE”
Here’s a real poundin’ organ punker, issued in early 1967 on the DISCOTEQUE label. That undistinguishable shout at the beginning is “ONE TWO THREE FOUR” in Arabic, and “Ya Ha Be Be” is Arabic for “pretty baby”.

The Bel-Aires were all pals at Wyoming High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan and they rose pretty quickly to dominate the local teen-band circuit with the JuJus, and with competition bearing names like The Quick And The Dead, it musta been pretty gruelling.

Traffic Jams

THE LEGENDS- “I’LL COME AGAIN”
The Legends were a group of Holland, Michigan teens that formed in 1964 and began paying all over western Michigan high school dances after getting their big break by winning the Holland Battle Of The Bands in ’65.

They recorded this wailin’ garage pop gem in early ’65, but Fenton didn’t release it til 1967, long after the group had split up. Two members of the Legends joined the Traffic Jams to back up Ray Hummell, the JuJus singer, on his solo 45 “Gentle Rain”/”Fine Day”.

Back to the Legends; one night they were on their way to appear on a local TV show and were late, so the drummer drove 80-90 mph down the highway, and when they got to the station they realized some of the equipment on the roof had fallen off. The TV host asked them about it during the show, and over the next hour people called up the group telling than that they had found their stuff strewn across the road. And they got everything back.

Back From The Grave | Volume 1 | (Crypt) 1983

THE RATS- “RATS REVENGE PART ONE” and “RATS REVENGE PART TWO”
The GREATEST garage punk record EVER!! The Rats were actually the Akron, Ohio group the Decades, an instrumental combo that started in 1963, playing against local competition like the Caps (“Daddy Dean”, “Red Headed Flea”) and releasing their first 45, as the Decades.

“Came On Pretty Baby” and “Strange Worlds”, a weird, outer-space style instrumental were both played on local radio and attracted the interest of a producer, Terry Rose, fresh off the MYSTICS “Snoopy” sessions (this track is available on “GRAVE VOLUME 2” and has to be heard for historical/hysterical purposes).

Motorcycle Gang

Terry approached the Decades and proposed a recording session to produce a musical tribute to the REAL hero of the AIP beach party flics, ERIC VON ZIPPER AND THE RATS MOTORCYCLE GANG!

After 10 straight takes, Terry told than all to lighten up and fool around on the final take, supplying lead vocals and insanity himself (a fact that took us 2 months of talking to him to get him to fess up to!).

Nothing was heard of the project or of Terry until 2 months later, when the 45 was released to the unwanting public. Needless to say, “Rats Revenge” didn’t receive any airplay, which is a damn pity, cauz this is 100% genius. PLAY THIS LOUD!

THE ONE WAY STREETS- “WE ALL LOVE PEANUT BUTTER”
One hot summer day in 1966, two mom driven station wagons pulled up outside Sunrise Studios in Hamilton, Ohio and out piled four crazed teens. While their moms set up a table on the lawn and played bridge and drank lemonade, the One Way Streets were inside the studio shredding through two songs they felt would create a big disturbance.

As a-finishing touch to their crazed afternoon of rockin’, they ripped off an eighty-dollar mike on their way out the door and haven’t been heard from since.

Back From The Grave | Volume 1 | (Crypt) 1983

LARRY AND THE BLUE NOTES- “NIGHT OF THE PHANTOM”
A truly cryptic song about an evil soul who cuts in on a teen couple’s fun at the local lovers lane. These Fort Worth, Texas legends started off their recording career in ’63 but did not cut anything til ’65, when they created “Night Of The Sadist”.

This was to be released on TIRIS, but their producer had them overdub “PHANTOM” cauz “SADIST” seemed a little too touchy for the non-teen square public (“adults”).

(For a real treat, buy “GRAVE VOLUME 4” and hear the taboo, unreleased “NIGHT OF THE SADIST”!) Larry and the Blue Notes released a ton of 45s under differing names, including the Bad, Mark Four, and suffered a lot of identity trouble between releases, probably due to the strange practices of Major Bill Smith, their producer.

Screaming Lord Sutch

THE ONE WAY STREETS- “JACK THE RIPPER”
Same real heavy-duty thrashin’ here, folks! This time the crazed One Way Streets rip through an insane mutation/rendition of the Screaming Lord Sutch classic, which they decided to credit to themselves, as London and copyright laws are a long way from Hamilton, Ohio.

THE SWAMP RATS- “PSYCHO”
Pittsburgh’s finest at their doggoned wildest! These guys were definitely the most inspired cover band back then, overlooking the obvious and searching out and recording obscure chestnuts by then-unknown groups like the Golliwogs, Sparkles, etc.

To top ’em all was this FRANTIC, LOUD, FAST, SCREAMIN’ cover of the Sonics’ raver, and damn me if it doesn’t provide proof that all these so-called “heavy metal” transvestite bands are nothing but a bunch of mama’s boys primping and perming their dumb wigs. The only heavy metal on ’em is all their gay bikers jewellery.

Berserk

THE CORDS- “GHOST POWER”
An ultra-cryptic, super-crazed instrumental is the only way you can follow up the Swamp Rats’ raging, so here’s a suitable monster fram the hinterlands of Wisconsin. (Unfortunately, for these boys, a little too close to Ed Gein’s neighbourhood, where we hear that Ed’s tap water seeped into a few reservoirs, causing odd damage of its own over the next few years.)

The Cords cut one 45, “Cords, Inc” and returned to the studio to create a follow-up. The feeble-girded engineer couldn’t handle the Cords punk thrash and went berserk, grabbing a buzz-saw and started hacking away at everything in sight, finally ending up with the Cords changing from a 4-piece combo to a 73-piece combo.

This record was released as an official court document for the trial, as the engineer had accidentally left the tape rolling and unwittingly created the ultimate proof the prosecution needed to pin the Cords’ murder on him. All those screams and buzz-saw sounds scared the hell out of the jury. Jailhouse rock, indeed.

Liner notes taken from the insert of Volume One